"For some of us, Carson's death a grim awakening"
Yep, we're all going to die of something. Imagine that.
True - He died at 79 -lived a good life, enjoyed retirement- beat the average - so why is it a "grim awakening"?
Johnny Carson was 79. He had a pretty good run. I didn't read about his death and think, "Gosh, he shouldn't have smoked."
Have you ever seen someone die of COPD from smoking for years and years? I have...quite a few.
Granted, some people smoke and never get COPD and some people (asthmatics) get COPD and never smoke. But in my 20 year nursing career, I've taken care of one asthmatic with COPD and too many smokers with it to count.
There sure are a lot of ways to die, but since I'm not an asthmatic, COPD isn't likely to be one of them for me. Coughing up chunks of thick grey phlegm for years into a trashcan until I'm too weak to cough it up and a nurse has to run a tube down my nose into my lungs to suck it out into a cannister on the wall and then sitting bolt upright in bed gasping for that last breath that doesn't come isn't how I'm gonna die.
I certainly will die of something, but not that.
Right, but we all don't have to commit suicide.
Thats what smokers do every time they light up a cancer stick.